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Inside Europe's $1BN Abandoned Mega-Build
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place so this this huge building cost
more than a billion dollars to build it
was designed for thousands of people but
right now it's completely
empty this video is a bit different for
us but today I'm taking you guys inside
one of the biggest abandoned buildings
in all of [Music]
Europe in 1979 a spaceship landed in
West Berlin it was the height of the
Cold War and Germany was cut in half
just over here the Soviets were building
the Palace of the Republic an enormous
structure that would host the parliament
of East Germany
the West meanwhile was determined it
could do anything the East could but
bigger and better so West Berlin put
forward the spaceship it was to cost a
billion marks to construct making it the
most expensive new building in the city
since World War II at its opening then
Federal president Walter Shield declared
it would Outlast even the Great Pyramids
of Giza berin gave that building a
nickname they called it the
spaceship even though it was partly
built out of spite this building has
become something of an icon for Berlin
it's both embraced and despised
depending who you
ask in many ways the construction of
this place mirrors the story of Berlin
itself it's dark it's techno it's packed
full of history and steeped in the
politics of the Cold
War but in recent years the IC has come
under threat and been left
abandoned now a new competition could be
set to reinvent this spaceship for a
different there's just something about
Berlin particularly when it comes to
architecture it can be Brash and cold
brutalist and modern a real mix of
architectural Styles and time
periods that's perhaps best represented
by the International Conference Center
or IC a building that's been done by the
locals here as the spaceship
but there's a lot more to this place
that Meets The Eye Inside is one of the
biggest convention centers in the world
a place that housed what was the second
largest stage in all of Europe and it
holds a pretty remarkable engineering
secret you see this isn't just one
massive building what you're looking at
right now is the shell and there's
something incredible suspended in sight
but to tell you the full story we first
have to go back in time
in the 1960s Berlin was very much a city
divided both physically and
ideologically in 1961 the Berlin Wall
was constructed to stop East Germans
from fleeing to the West it became one
of the most potent symbols of the
division in the country separating
families friends and
communities the East was Communist
controlled while the West Was a
democratic Enclave supported by the
British Americans and other Western
powers this was the Cold War and it was
competitive if one side did something so
too did the other whether that be
stockpiling nuclear weapons or heading
to the Moon even something as small as
City infrastructure became a way for
both sides to try and show their
superiority the two cities began to have
radically different architectural styles
to reflect their opposing ideologies
East Berlin prioritized Grand statement
pieces that showcase the government's
unopposed strength like the K marks
alley or the futuristic TV tower they
planted Alexander plats it's a 638m
watchtower that broadcast propaganda and
could be seen from pretty much
everywhere in both cities for its part
the West retaliated with modernist
architecture that symbolized progress
democratization and technological
achievements such as the burin Phil
Harmony and the Tagle Airport terminal
it was during this time that the East
announced they were be replacing the now
demolished Berlin Palace that once
housed Prussian Kings and German
Emperors with their own Palace of the
Republic inside would be the vogca the
parliament of East Germany this building
was one of the most significant
architectural projects of the German
Democratic Republic it featured
luxurious materials that weren't common
in the Soviet Union including marble and
wood paneling making it one of the most
extravagant structures in the entire
country naturally of course the West had
to respond they put forward their own
enormous extravagant building only
instead of a palace their building would
be the largest Congress Center in the
world instead of housing a Communist
Regime theirs would hold International
conferences and trade fairs it would be
a capitalist playground this place would
have another purpose too to announce
West Berlin as a hub for International
Business and culture to declare that it
could be its own City not just an
conclave in an increasingly unfriendly
part of the world the political idea of
this building was to set up a building
um which was the biggest the largest
Convention Center in Europe which was of
course a political statement at that
time to be to have it in West Berlin a
city surrounded by Communists and uh by
Uh Russian army husband and wife
Architects Ralph Schuler and urina
Schuler witz were chosen to design the
Behemoth and they conceived a futuristic
high-tech structure unlike anything that
had been seen before they wanted to
create a building that symbolized the
modernity and technological advancements
of the Berlin they wanted to live in
what they created was a striking mix of
brutalism and high-tech architecture you
can see this in the exposed steel beams
sharp angles and its machine-like
aesthetic this was technical optimism
and it represented all the hope that
West berliners had for the future the
Space Race as a Convention Center that
was probably the biggest contstruction
site ever in in in in West Berlin and
every time I drove by car with my
parents there was this huge construction
side on the ground construction works
first started in 1973 and when it was
completed in 1979 more than 900 million
deuts marks have been spent making it
the most expensive building in West
Berlin since the end of World War II at
320 M long 80 M wide and 40 m high it
was one of the largest buildings in the
city you could lie the Eiffel Tower down
flat and it would just about fit in
sight this site's also surrounded by
pretty busy RADS so getting the
soundproofing right was essential to
ensure that noise and vibrations from
the outside couldn't be felt Insight it
was decided that the ICC would become a
building within a building
this inner building would be enclosed in
an independently constructed separate
outer shell ironically a kind of Russian
doll of a structure this inner building
was made of reinforced concrete with
pretensioned transverse divider elements
as the main supports the weight of the
building was transferred down the
divider elements to the foundations near
P bearings were used to ensure technical
separation from any exterior sounds or
vibrations meanwhile the outer building
can consisted of exterior walls and the
roof effectively forming a shell around
the inner building the walls and roof
were built as a steel loadbearing
structure this is one of those buildings
that really isn't afraid to show off its
structure was in fact one of the first
in the world to start doing that a lot
of the really big engineering elements
instead of being hidden away are brought
out for the world to see like those huge
steel trusses you can see behind me they
carry the immense weight of what's
inside this Center this building really
does embrace its location at the axis of
so many motorways it even has a car
foyer in the form of a Drivin level
which allows cars to arrive immediately
below the main
entrance walking in here really is like
stepping back in time as soon as you
come inside that 1970s techno optimism
really hits you this is this is the
boulevard this is level zero this is
what most people would have experienced
as soon as they walked into this
building and it's like stepped onto the
set of Star Wars it really is out of this
this
world from this Boulevard you can access
staircases and escalators which are
arranged like side roads taking you up
to the other levels of the building this
turns level zero into a kind of traffic
Hub with its own Road system for
visitors when you enter this building
the first Association you have something
Beyond reality you feel like being in a
now one thing you won't have failed to
notice is the crazy lighting system
above my head it was designed by Berlin
based artist Frank erring red on one
side blue on the other and the idea of
that was to try and help people navigate
and find their way around this absolute
Maze of a
building and that lighting system all
comes together here above this Central
meeting point this sculpture above me is
called the brain and I don't know how
describe it it's kind of unlike anything
I've seen before it is an enormous great
thing it spans three stories up through
this building and it's covered in neon
light you can see these kind of like
strands radiating out from it they're
designed to look like nerve fibers
coming out and going out through the
building and the idea of this structure
was quite literally to break the ice get
people talking and to bring people
together things don't get any less
sci-fi As you move through the building
and there's a reason for that the r I'm
in now one of the lecture Halls Hall six
was actually modeled off Star Trek one
of the television shows that were
popular at the time and you can really
see where this building gets its
nickname the spaceship not just outside
but inside as well I feel like I'm in a
movie right now it's very very
cool so this is probably the most
impressive part of the IC right it's
called the main hall you can see 5,000
people and it's the first conference
room of its size ever constructed in
Germany and it could be made even bigger
the floor I'm currently standing on can
be lifted up connecting this hole to
another massive hole through there and
creating one of the biggest stages in
Europe but that's not all these enormous
rooms have another incredible
secret they're
floating they're both suspended from the
outer shell using a combination of
advanced structural and mechanical design
design
techniques those massive steel trusses
we showed you earlier extend up over the
roof of the building and they're the
primary loadbearing components
supporting those suspended holes that
are sitting inside Halles one and two
are directly suspended from these
trusses using tension steel hangers or
rods they transfer the weight of the
Halls to the roof trusses the trusses
themselves are supported by Massive
steel columns and Foundation points that
distribute the weight down to the ground
a really good way to show you how that
works is with this very cool physical
model of the ICC building I love stuff
like this you can see up here these big
steel roof Tres I just showed you
they're carrying the weight the huge
weight of those suspended theaters
transferring them across down the sides
of the building through these steel
colums and into the foundations in the
ground by suspending Halls one and two
The Architects effectively isolated them
from vibrations and noise generated in
other parts of the building particularly
the halls and spaces below and the
surrounding motorways that massively
improves Acoustics and means that more
than one event can take place at the
same time and that people can be as loud
as they want to be that suspended system
has been designed to accommodate all
kinds of loads including those caused by
crowd movement equipment vibrations and
environmental factors like winds or even
earthquakes it also frees up this
massive space underneath and creates
column free spaces inside the halls I
have to say I've had a good look around
I've tried to put this place through its
Paces right and there are literally no
bad seats it's a really clever and
sophisticated engineering solution and
part of what makes this building such an architectural
architectural
Landmark but when it was completed and
open to the public the reaction was
pretty mixed while some praised its
Forward Thinking and bold design others
noted the enormous construction costs
equivalent to over $1 billion in today's money
money
despite that the building has developed
an almost cult-like status and was given
a Heritage listing in
2019 everyone who comes to Berlin and
who passes by say wow what is that that
that is incredible what a iconic
architecture only from the outside but
if you are inside that's even more
amazing people came over from everywhere
in the world to join The Opening
Ceremonies for this building so it was a
very very known building not only in
Berlin but you can say in Europe was was
a very very famous uh
building but over the years it struggled
to be maintained for its original
purpose it's just too huge it was
effectively closed and abandoned in 2014
and it's been used as accomodation for
refugees a covid vaccination Center and
as a space for art
exhibitions was in the last 10 or 20
years there always was the idea of
destroying the building setting up
something new and there was always a big
opposition against it because people
love it it's one of the most important
sites of the city but now the city
government really does want to
rejuvenate this Sleeping Beauty they're
launching a competition where investors
can apply to use and run the building
I'm meeting people from all over the
world investors Architects courageous
people Innovative people that have ideas
it's not a competition where you just
you know say that is our concept and uh
take it or or don't take it but it's a
dialogue so the idea is that the
investor and The Architects they enter
into dialogue with the city of Berlin to
have the most Innovative concept for for
this building they'll be able to rent
the ICC for free for 99 years and bring
it back to life the only prerequisite is
that they have to remodel it and make it
available for public use I think 99% of
the biners love it and they wish to be
it open again because it's a public space
space
also they really is still a lot of love
for this abandoned spaceship structure
the recent art exhibition was sold out
and had incredible hype from the public
tickets to see inside the building on an
open Heritage day were snapped up in
just 2 hours the Berlin of today is a
city of innovation it's Germany's
startup Capital with 5 100 new Ventures
every year and of course it's the
political center of the country and a
key pillar of the
EU the city hopes to have made the
decision by the end of 2026 at which
point this sleeping giant might just
have new life breathe into it once again
this video was sponsored by the city of
Berlin you can learn more about that at
the link below don't forget that we're
inspiring the next generation of
Engineers through our investment into
brick bar borrow a fantastic Lego
subscription service you can learn more
and get started today over at Brick
bor.com and as always guys if you
enjoyed this video and you want to get
more from the definitive video channel
for construction make sure you subscribe
to the b1m [Music]
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